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Cleaning Your Computer

Spring Cleaning Your Computer
Here’s how to defragment your hard drive to keep your PC running smooth and speedy

When you first start out using a new computer—or rather, a new hard disk—and storing your files, all the data is stored together on consecutive clusters on your hard disk. But when you begin using these files (adding, deleting, and modifying) the data is broken into smaller and smaller pieces and is scattered around the disk creating empty clusters wherever a file is deleted. And the system writes each new data into the first empty cluster it finds on the disk, even if it isn’t near the rest of the file. Over time, the blank spots left by your deleted file begin to scatter over your disk. A disk with several such free spots is a fragmented disk drive.

What happens if my disk is fragmented?

The hard disk takes more time to access, open and close your files. This is because your disk has to work longer accessing fragmented files, as the read-write head on your disk has to search the disk for the file fragments. So applications run slower and the disk's useful life is shortened. Fragmentation degrades performance and increases disk wear and tear.

How can I improve my disk’s performance?

You can improve your disk’s performance by defragmentation.

What’s defragmentation?

It is a process in which the hard disk moves all files together to eliminate fragments between them and stores your entire free space at the end of your disk drive. When you need to store a file, the hard disk does not have the difficulty finding a single large space big enough to handle a file. Windows comes with a program called Disk Defragmenter, which you can use to defragment (or “defrag” to use geek speak) your hard disk.

How should I defragment my hard drive

Windows 95

Click the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter
Pick the drive (C:) or All Hard Drives
Click on Advanced, and make sure the Full Defragmentation button is checked
Click on Start even if it says a full defrag is not necessary

Windows 98

Click the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter
Windows 98 displays an opening window that asks whether you want a log file that enables you to select a drive to record the defragmentation record
Click the Settings button and the Disk Defragmenter Settings dialog box appears which lets you to rearrange your files by selecting your most used files and putting them at the beginning of your file space for faster access
Click Next and the program tells you to quit all running programs
Close all the programs and click on Next.
If you select the option labeled Check the drive for errors, the Disk Defragmenter checks the file for errors. If any errors are found, it stops until you fix them using the Scan Disk program.
If no errors are found the Settings dialog box is displayed where you can choose to keep the settings for subsequent defrag
The Disk Defragmenter places the programs you use most often in an efficient disk location. Click on one or more programs to select them before clicking Next
The Disk Defragmenter then starts each selected program, one at a time, and asks you to close it after its startup. After you close all programs the final wizard window appears
Click on the Finish button to move the disk selection process.
Select the drive you want to defrag
Click OK to start the process.

I don’t know if my disk is fragmented, do I still need to run the Disk Defragmenter?

You can run the Disk Defragmenter even though your disk is not fragmented. The Disk Defragmenter tells you not to continue if the disk has few or no free fragments to defrag.

I couldn’t find the Disk Defragmenter in the System tools. What should I do?

The Disk Defragmenter is part of Windows 95/98 and is automatically installed in Windows 98. If you have a Windows 95 system, and Disk Defragmenter isn’t installed, go through these steps.

Click on Start/Settings/Control Panel/
Select Add/Remove Programs
Choose Windows Setup
Select the Disk tools option, and then click on OK

You need to have the Windows 95 installation CD for this

When do I defrag the hard disk and how often should I do it?

When you find that your system takes a longer time to load, open or close files, or run applications it’s time to run a defrag. Another indication is the LED light (the small light on your CPU)--if it goes off for a long time when you save data, you should run a defrag. The best time to defrag your disk is after you’ve removed a large number of files from your PC.

You should defrag your system on a regular basis--at least once a week.

How much time does it take to defrag?

A defrag depends on how long it has been since you last did this, how full your drive is, how powerful your CPU is and how much RAM you have. Defrag time also depends on how large your drive is—a smaller drive will take lesser time to defrag than a larger drive. Defragging time can run from 5 or ten minutes to a couple of hours depending on all these factors.

Can something go wrong when I run a defrag?

If you run a defrag while some applications are writing on to the hard disk, you might get an error message which says: Drive's content changed: restarting.

This is because the disk is busy writing information on it--you probably have an application (like MS Word) open and are saving data while the defrag is on. Every time you save some new data on the hard disk, the defragmenter starts all over again. So make sure that you are not writing any data into the hard disk while the defrag is on and close all programs and applications before running a defrag.

Another error message that you could get is: A program is writing to your disk. This may be because there is some active program (like a screen saver) open and running in the background.

Is there any other defragging tool that I can use?

The Norton Utilities and Nuts and Bolts by Helix Software are two of the popular defrag tools available. In fact they do a better defrag than the Windows built in defragmenter

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